He turned up aged 11 after all his team mates from school said there was a kid at school that single handedly won a school match with 4 tries. I said bring him down !

He won MOM in Yorkshire Cup final at U12s and I played him at hooker. He kept a younger Curtis Jackson out of the team. Jamie also played with Lee Williams and Dean Hadley. Aaron Ollett was also in the team (KR 20s).

I knew he had to grow to the same height as Rob Burrow and as I haven't seen Jamie for 5 years I don't know his height but he has everything else. I think Rovers let him go from their scholarship and he went to Skirlaugh open age.

from the numerous u20s games ive seen this season, shaul never dissapointed, has a quick turn of pace and can leave players in his tracks once in open field

Agree from what ive seen of Jamie in the 20s he has always stood out, pops up in the right places and has decent pace, wether he can make it in super league is a different matter, hopefully he will, maybe send him out on dual reg in championship to get some experience at next level. IMO i think he is a better prospect than Matty Russel (i believe Matty is now 3rd choice f/b at Wigan)

Having re-watched a few games today I'd like to see Mark O'Meley and Martin Aspinwall offered new deals.

I would but I can see reasons (mainly salary cap) for not offering them deals.

I really liked Russel, obviously he is a work in progress, but still i would be happy to have him, and see how he progressed. Fair point, he was suspect under the high ball, but to be fair to the lad he's only 18 and stepped up overnight from playing in the park, to playing with the big boys. Foster is an outcast at Saints but the lads barely put a foot wrong since joining us, indeed i would prefare to see him stay rather than sign Crookes.

Wigglesworth didn't play for Hull RU at the weekend, but Greg Lound, the other kid we had on trail from there did, and I've heard we've offered him an under 20s contract too.

Good stuff, suppose this is the upside to the arrangement at Y.P.I

Radders was heavily involved in bringing them both in, he played with and coached them, and both lads have played north/midlands RU at their age groups so are obviously talented rugby players.

The Salary Cap is the reason you wouldn't be able to sign Richard Owen, Wish you did. He's on a big wage and doesn't look to be making it as a FB (although has ended the season much better than he started)

Greg Eden was rumoured to be following Nathan Brown to St Helens, Thats one i heard weeks ago, Not had an update since.

Our fullback will be Shannon Mcdonnell officially signed yesterday by all accounts

Has it been officially announced?

Yep 100%.

No would expect him to be one of the firsts though

Having slept on it, not a bad wage for an overseas fullback tbh nowhere near the 120k+ that was rumored

Any one else you know of for certain?
You may have already mentioned it but with hundreds of posts and several threads can't remember who you said

Got a text saying same thing this morning but jedR says it's so take it as done.

i haven't mentioned it although the people i know and get a lot of my stuff off have, id say Chase, Holdsworth, Johnson, Crookes, Mcdonnell and then they have spoke to the likes of Amor Bateman Whitehead Taylor but i don't know about these or how likely they are

Am I adding two and two together and getting 5 or was the McDonnell signing Gentles plan from when he first took the job?

Reading the HDM article last week everything just fell into place.

I had heard that out of the two Mckinnon and Mcdonnell Gentle would have signed Mcdonnell

Makes sense now, no wonder the hkr fans are upset.

It wasn't like we stole Dobson from them half way through a season but what goes around and all that.

agreed, Taylor next haha

Interesting, well I haven't seen much of McDonnell to compare him to McKinnon

If he signed yesterday that would mean that he wasn't one of the 6 AP was quoted saying months ago that was 'done' would it?

yeh it still the same thing id expect, agreed a deal to come months back as part of the six but officially signed it yesterday

When AP said 'signed', he meant 'agreed', I'm sure. While the anti-tampering rule is clearly unenforcible, and thus pointless, if signed, dated contracts existed, even the RFL might feel obliged to investigate.